Sep 25 2008
Frank J. Valenti, Former Rochester mob boss dies
Rochester organized crime boss Frank Valenti dies
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Frank J. Valenti, who oversaw organized crime activity in Rochester during its violent heyday in the 1960s and ’70s, has died in Texas.
Valenti was 97.
Valenti seized control of gambling, prostitution and extortion rackets in the city in 1964 and had connections with the powerful Bonanno family based in New York City, investigators say.
He was toppled by rivals during a violent turf war between mob factions capped by a series of bombings at churches, court buildings and the homes of a judge and a labor union leader.
After a federal prison stint for extortion, Valenti moved to Arizona and later to Texas. He ended up at a nursing home in Sugar Land outside Houston, where he died Saturday, according to a death certificate filed Wednesday at the Fort Bend County clerk’s office.
During Valenti’s notorious reign, his hometown newspaper ran a regular feature on the doings of the dapper gangster entitled “Spotlight on Rochester’s gambling czar.”
The construction company owner was considered to be “the most significant person” in organized crime in Rochester at that time, former District Attorney Donald Chesworth, who worked on mob investigations for the FBI in the 1960s, said in Thursday’s Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
Valenti was one of the last remaining survivors of a legendary 1957 summit meeting of Mafia bosses captured at a hilltop estate in the hamlet of Apalachin about 150 miles northwest of New York City.
The “Big Barbecue” at Joseph Barbara Sr.’s estate broke up suddenly on Nov. 14, 1957, when a guest shouted a warning that police were watching. Nattily dressed men in shiny shoes, silk shirts and cashmere coats scrambled into the woods but were easily rounded up.
State police arrested 65 men at the mob conclave, including Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino and Paul Castellano. Under questioning, most of the men said they had come to the area on business and then just dropped in on their good friend. No charges were filed.
The raid confirmed the existence of a national crime syndicate, helped make “Mafia” a household word and gave Apalachin an enduring spot in mob lore.
Rochester organized crime boss Frank Valenti dies - By BEN DOBBIN, Associated Press Writer - Sept. 25, 2008, 2:53PM - This story was found at: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6022811.html
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